When I read about Anne's idea of downsizing her current wardrobe and creating a capsule wardrobe for each season, I was intrigued. I've read a little bit about the concept specifically from the blog Anne recommended, Unfancy, but just don't think I could narrow each capsule down to 37 pieces. Since I don't work from home and instead spend 40 hours a week in a professional (although somewhat casual) environment I knew I would need more to accommodate weekday and weekend looks. So even though I've decided not to limit myself to a specific number of items, I used this as an opportunity to take a good look at the excess in my closet and to at least start to downsize!
Step 1 - Pull out the obvious choices for donation/hitting the trash.
I knew this would be a project to really dig into over the weekend, but was getting a little antsy so I started this step last week. I decided to let go of the cardigans that were at the point where they were looking a little worn and aren't really my style anymore anyway and the t-shirts that were necessary at my old job because of the lack of air conditioning but haven't been worn much since, if at all (and I've been at my current job for 2 years now!).
Step 2 - Take everything out of your closet.
During this stage I took everything into one of the spare bedrooms. It was a pain to go back and forth, but I knew this would be a multiple day project and if I kept it in our bedroom, then all organized piles would be shoved to the side the second they were in my way. I liked Jacquelyn's idea of tackling this section by section instead of pulling everything out of my closet all at once. My closet has tops/most sweaters organized by color, so I pulled out a few sections at a time. As I did this, I kept a pile of clothes I'll wear this fall (September, October, November) then hung the other keepers in the closet of that spare bedroom in the following 4 sections:
- winter items (December, January, February)
- spring items (March, April, May)
- summer items (June, July, August)
- fall items that I won't be able to wear until fall 2015 because there's no way they'll come close to fitting my pregnant body (September, October, November)
Step 3 - Do a bunch of laundry.
I'm kind of the worst about doing laundry during the week and we've had a few busy weekends so it piled up a bit. Actually catching up on it meant getting a realistic picture of what I have that's currently working for me.
Step 4 - Start to put clothes back in my closet...
...and maybe freak out a bit about how much less there is. :)
Step 5 - Get the donations out of the house.
The longer they're here the more likely I am to second guess my decisions! I have to admit, I already let one t-shirt sneak back in because I had second thoughts about it.
Check back in tomorrow when I'll be linking up with Anne and Jacquelyn to see just how much I've gotten rid of so far, my remaining to-do list as part of this project, and details of what items made the cut for this fall!
